A New Beginning: Ben McAdoo and Jerry Reese are Gone

Ben McAdoo and Jerry Reese are Gone

By Steven Ekenstierna (@stevie_oneduhh)

It’s all finally come to an end for the tenures of Jerry Reese and Ben McAdoo as General Manager and Head Coach, respectively. It’s been talked about for weeks now which one would be good the question was a matter of who and when, and after this last straw (The handling of the benching of Manning).

The Giants answered both questions in swiftly firing both Reese and McAdoo wishing the span of about an hour. The interim head coach going forward will be defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuola.

The first decision Spags will have to make is whether or not he reinserted Manning as Quarterback to at least start the remaining 4 games. That basically covers the big decision-making needs for the remainder of the year.

Then come the big questions, who is the next GM and Head Coach, though I have tremendous respect for what he does as a Defensive Coordinator. In my opinion there isn’t anything that he can do over these last 4 games that would put him in contention for the Head Coaching job. That’s the only sure thing I can say about the Head Coaching position. In fact any type of speculation on who will be the GM and Head Coach next year is nothing but that, wild speculation.

This begins the process of the Giants starting over. Ernie Accossi, famed Giants GM prior to Jerry Reese and someone who possesses a tremendous amount of football knowledge, will serve in an advisory role. As it goes for the GM and Head Coaching jobs, you can count on one hand the number of legitimate candidates that would command/demand control of both.

The Giants and particularly John Mara have always believed in a balance of power philosophy, so expect the GM and Head Coach to be two different people. The caveat to that is you would hope that the Giants, in whomever they choose for each position, do so in a manner very much like the 49ers did.

In that they hired both their Head Coach and GM for the same length of time in terms of contracts, while also making sure they had the same outlook and plan for the team moving forward. Decisions, such as who to draft with a top 5 pick and whether or not to keep Manning next year(I predict he’s your starting 2018 QB) as a bridge to usher in what we all assume will be a hopeful franchise Quarterback the same way Eli was for over a decade. As these decisions are made, the coaching staff must be filled out which is essential in a rebuild.